"I think you're jumping the gun," said Prue.
"No," said Piper. "Not at all. The Elders are a part of the problem. They're keeping a broken status quo, controlling the greater world because they think they're good and now they've kept our sister away from us?"
"Piper, calm down," said Prue.
"I will not calm down!" she said. "I won't let these powers stop me from feeling angry."
"Piper, look down," said Phoebe. Piper did and the sight was of the wooden floors which had cracks running all along them. Piper took a long breath, pushing away the anger, doing her best to push away all emotions. The cracks on the floor fixed themselves.
"This doesn't even make sense," Piper said, ignoring the cracks repairing themselves. "How does this connect to my powers? Freezing, explosions and now cracks?"
"Maybe I can help," said Phoebe. She took a breath and the far off look appeared before it disappeared. "You're actually controlling molecules," she said. "Stopping them when you freeze, exciting them from zero to a hundred when you're exploding, and now you're exciting them slower, drying out the wood, enough and you might cause it to burst into flames or shatter."
Piper let out a long breath, pushing back the questions that were already bubbling up at the back of her mind.
"I hate these hell forsaken powers," Piper muttered. "You think you have them figured out and there's a new aspect of it to get used to."
"But we can figure it out," said Prue, "if you calm down and let me figure this out." Piper grit her teeth, pushing to keep herself calm. "Phoebe, how good at you at pushing visions?"
"Getting pretty good," she answered. "But we need to get on bringing Paige here. We're not the only ones with an eye on the future, between the Seer, the Angels of Destiny and other witches with a power similar to mine, they might figure out what we know."
"Is it safe for us to be out there?" asked Prue.
Phoebe shook her head. "Leo won't know what's going on, but he'll have spoken to the Elders nonetheless. They'll be watching us and they might see something if one of them is looking at the future."
"But we can call her," said Piper as memories of the book came to the fore. "Calling a Lost Witch. That might be a shock to her system though, bringing her into this world."
"We have to ask the question," said Prue. "Do we induct her into this world as was done with us? Because from the way things are looking it might be more danger her being with us than her being on her own. Looking forward?"
Phoebe looked like she'd just returned from a vision. "I don't know," she said. "I don't see her in the future. I think someone might be blocking me."
"Then the more prudent thing is to bring her here," said Prue. "Put her to sleep until we can figure things out. Hopefully we can come out of this with her knowing as little as possible before breaking the rest to her."
"Only option we have for the time being," said Piper. "But I'm noticing more and more that we're doing a lot in a short amount of time. Between this, the Elders, dealing with Javna."
"We need to prioritise," said Prue. "Our sister first. Get her out of danger and then we look into Javna and then finally deal with the whole business with the Elders."
"I'll get started on the preparations on the spell," said Piper.
"I'll keep looking at the future or the past," said Phoebe. "Give us a better image of what's been going on. Maybe we can find help from other witches."
"And I'll…practice with the new form of my ability," said Prue. "It will be helpful in the long run. Communicating to the outside world while staying under the protection of the house. Matter of fact maybe we should prepare potions, offensive measures in case something comes into the house."
"Good idea," said Phoebe. "But that would require ingredients, something that would mean we'd have to go out."
"Danger?" asked Prue.
"I'll have to look," said Phoebe. "But I have to wonder at some point if there's going to be backlash on constantly using my ability like this. You guys are a little lucky, you use your abilities in short spurts."
Piper was already shaking her head. "I used my powers for more than an hour and I didn't feel any differently. I don't get the feeling that we're drawing power from something."
"Or we are and we're drawing from something powerful," said Phoebe. "That prophecy did say we were the culmination of a very powerful prophecy."
"Don't remind me about that, please," Piper muttered. She took a breath, pushing back the upsurge of fear and anger that she was starting to feel. "We will need to go out though. Something else to plan on. It might be a wise idea to hire someone to do outside business for us."
"Putting another person in danger," Prue said. She shook her head. "No. We'll go out there ourselves. It won't help us to be stuck in this house for the rest of our lives. We'll just keep running the situation past Phoebe, looking at the future and planning on how we'll deal with everything until we come out of it alright."
"Calling Paige first, though," said Phoebe. She was smiling, an excited look on her. "I can't wait to see her. I've always wanted to a younger sister."
"I'll get started on that," said Piper.
She scaled through the house and into the attic. It was surprising how stock Grams had had on hand and it didn't take much time to find the requirements: Rosemary, Cypress and Yarrow root. A small knife, a pestle and a silver mortar. Beyond that the only requirement was the Book of Shadows.
Prue led the spell and it went without a hitch. Saying the incantation, Prue ground the various elements nothing overt happened, but when Prue added her blood there was a shimmering in the air before a girl appeared.
"What—" she started but Phoebe was already moving through her iteration of a sleeping beauty spell. The girl slumped all at once, Prue catching her so she wouldn't hit her head.
"This is her," said Prue, still holding the girl in her telekinetic grip. She let out a long breath. "She's different from what I imagined."
Phoebe was grinning. "Our youngest sister," she said. "God, how I wish we were meeting under different circumstances."
"This has me thinking though," said Piper. She couldn't take her eyes off the girl, but even so her mind was moving forward, already on the next task. "What about the power of three? There are four sisters. Will our power wain or something?"
"For that matter shouldn't her powers have activated?" said Prue. "The colder part of me thinks that this might be some help in everything we've been doing, even if it diminishes the Power of Three. All things being the same, though, we should probably talk to grams about this. If that's going to be even possible. We might be in some heavenly blacklist."
"Similar spell," said Phoebe. "We can do it now. Get it out of the way."
Prue nodded and they began, quickly moving through the spell until two women stood in the middle of the room, the older of the two wearing a smirk while the younger looked distraught with worry.
"You girl sure have been busy," said Grams.
"You know what we've been doing?" asked Prue.
"No," said Patty. "But the Elders have been up here, asking questions. They're worried that you might have fallen in evil's path."
"Told them they were crazy, of course," said Grams. "I raised smart girls. Efficient about whatever they're want, especially when they have goals in mind."
"I don't feel like that now, though," said Piper. "I'm feeling too scared to think logically and I think all my thoughts are geared towards that."
"All our thoughts," said Prue. "Especially after we found out about Paige."
Both of them stopped at that. "You know," said Patty and even in those two words her voice broke.
"I had a vision of the past," said Phoebe. "Of you and Grams deciding it was better to hide her because of the Elders. We thought…Well I thought that she might be in danger."
"That's worrying," said Grams. "Especially to one with the gift of Premonition. What's going on, Phoebe?"
"Before I answer I have to ask, how much sway do the Elders have in your…dimension? In heaven? Wherever you both are?"
"They have a lot of sway in that they played a part in building this place," said Patty. "But beyond that there are immutable rules. What they can and can't do. Why? What are you girls planning that's got you this paranoid?"
"I think it might be a good idea to overthrow the Elders," said Piper without even really thinking it through. These were people she could trust, her family, she trusted that between them or the 'higher power' they would choose them.
"You want to overthrow the Elders?" said Patty, slowly. "Why?"
"Because they're perpetuating a broken system," said Piper, thinking it through for the first time. "With the way they're doing things, evil has the upper hand and the only thing truly holding them back is utter stupidity.
"Beyond that there's the fact they make up rules that don't make sense in the greater scheme of what they're trying to achieve. Personal gain is one of them, if it didn't exist then we could use our abilities to greater fight evil, but even beyond that why do abilities have to disappear if they aren't being used in the way the Elders want.
"The more and more I think about it, it seems like the system is gamed to turn witches into warlocks. Instead of putting up a state of neutrality in place."
"But why overthrow?" asked Grams. "Why not talk to the Elders?"
"The same reason you and Grams chose to just hide Paige instead of talking to the Elders," Piper answered. "Because whether we want to admit it or not, the Elders with the help of the Angels of Destiny, are in complete control of our lives. At this very moment they could very well be altering events so we're indebted to them."
"Those are two different things," said Patty. "But I understand why you could jump to that. Piper, you have to understand that the Elders are ultimately good…"
"Which is something better heard from us directly," said a new voice. The three of them turned in the direction, Piper's hands already moving to make the man exploded and Paige already pulling things and pushing them towards the man.
A shield appeared over the man, large enough that it protected him from both of their attacks. The thing disappeared as the attacks faded.
"Calm, sisters," the man said. "I mean you no harm. I am Ramus, the foremost seer for the Elders."
"Because that should calm them down," Grams muttered. "I need a seat. Chair there, come here, rest my derriere." A chair came within their field of vision and Grams sat heavily. "This should be fun. Well go on, then."
Ramus gave Grams a long suffering scowl before he let out a huff.
"Whitelighter Wyatt tells us you have questions," said Ramus. "And unfortunately the Angels of Destiny are worried about the ever changing future. I'm here to alleviate any concerns, in the hope to avoid any future complications."
"I don't like the fact that they sent someone who can see the future here," said Prue.
"More so if you know how this whole thing works," said Phoebe. "I just looked forward. Really forward, trying to field this conversation but a me from the future so me. She told me how this all works, premonitions along with the Grand Design. You're killing a lot of people by even agreeing to this."
"What's that mean?" asked Prue.
"I can't remember which of us said it," said Phoebe. "But it was said nonetheless that a predicting the future as well as fate or destiny can't exist in place were I have visions and I can change them. The me in the future explained that it doesn't work like that, instead there's only one universe."
"You're not making any sense," said Prue.
"Okay, so there's the theory that every decision causes a split, creating different timelines, different event." Piper and Prue nodded. The Elder, along with the spirit, were surprisingly quiet. "Well, the Grand Design can only exist if there's one universe, because can't really be true if there are different events all along one another.
"So the Angels of Destiny prune these events. They see the greater tree that's forming and they cut off the branches that they don't want, in essence keeping the flow of the future that they want."
"What do you mean when you say prune?" asked Prue.
"She means that they destroy the timelines that deviate too much from the future we seek," said Ramus. "Like this timeline is proving to be in all honesty." Ramus sighed and Piper felt dread filling her stomach. The same look was spread out amongst her sisters.
"You can't destroy an entire universe," said Patty.
"For the greater good we have no choice but to," he said. "Evil comes easy to this universe. A pattern we Elders have seen through look into the future. This is the greatest chance to ensuring that good triumph at the end."
"By destroying the entire universe?" Prue said, her tone laden with anger. "In what world does that make sense."
"In a world where you have the entire image set out before you," Ramus answered.
"I think I can stop this," said Phoebe and then she jumped to the side just as threads of electricity-like light speared where she'd just beam.
"With me girls," said Patty. "When in the circle that is home, safety's gone and evils roam, save us sisters three now heed our call."
Patty and Grams said the spell but the three of them couldn't join; Piper had fired an explosion at the man and though it had landed, he'd quickly reformed. A large table was flying through the air only to be stopped by the force field.
The man fired his electricity to freeze in place. The man conjured another shield at some unseen attack and it warped, faltering enough that Piper could freeze the man.
They joined the spell, saying it thrice before the man exploded into bits of blue light which themselves twinkled out.
"Okay," said Phoebe. "This buys us time but I'd like it if we were protected. I'm running on theory at this point. I don't know if this might actually work backwards but it's worth a try."
"Stop explaining and just do," said Prue. "Protection spells? Wards?"
"They won't be as powerful with just the both of you but with this room it should keep them at bay long enough that they don't stop you," said Grams. "But you should get Paige, first. They'll most likely use her against you?"
"I'll do it," said Prue before rushing out of the room. She ran out of the room and it was moments later that the entire house shook. Prue appeared. "Start the spell Piper."
"It will stop you too," said Patty.
"I know," said Prue.
Piper began the spell reciting it with her mother and grandmother. She felt something close to strain the more she said the spell, the more power she put behind it. The house shook again, this time harsher, the sound of splintering wood reverberating from outside.
There was another boom, shaking the entire house but this time lines drawing themselves out on the walls. The next boom came quicker with more power behind it, the cracks on the walls becoming thicker and sections of the wall falling off.
Another boom and an entire section of the wall fell off. Piper stopped, her legs giving up at the loss of strength, her breath coming out harsh. A woman appeared, golden light preceding her.
"The message has been sent," said Phoebe. She too sounding tired.
"You've ruined plans set in motion before even you were but a thought," the woman said, anger in her tone.
Piper shrugged. "Guess you'll have to have played it differently in the other timelines."
"We'll salvage this," she said. "You're not the first to seek to interfere with the Grand Design."
The woman snapped her fingers and then there was nothing.
AN: Even if it looks like that. This story isn't complete yet.